GENEVA — Seeking to impress ministers arriving from around the world with the gravity of the task before them - reaching the outlines of a global trade deal - Pascal Lamy is going so far as to change the venue from his suite of offices to an august, wood-paneled library at World Trade Organization headquarters for the first time.

Lamy, director general of the trade body, will need all the help - and the atmosphere - he can get to persuade bickering ministers to commit to hard numbers and to avoid missing more deadlines in a seemingly interminable round of talks that began in 2001 in the Qatari capital of Doha.

"We need the ministers to crack the nut now, not later," he implored Tuesday, a new cliché for an exhortation heard - and ignored - many times before.

There was little sign at the outset that things would be different from past ministerial meetings, with U.S. and European Union trade negotiators still resisting appeals to be more aggressive in slashing agricultural tariffs and subsidies in exchange for more freedom to sell rich-world goods and services to the developing world.

If anything, ministers appeared to harden their positions, with France re- emerging as one of the most unyielding negotiators in the global round, and casting some doubt on whether Peter Mandelson, the EU's trade chief, would be able to lower barriers to food imports - one of the crucial points to easing the deadlock.

The French trade minister, Christine Lagarde, said that European concessions on agriculture were generous already. As "things stand now, it's impossible for us to improve it," Lagarde said.

The U.S. trade representative, Susan Schwab, coming to Geneva for her first test as head of the American delegation after her predecessor, Rob Portman, left to take a top job in U.S. domestic policy, also talked tough, saying that she would resist any agreement that would hurt U.S. interests.

"We can't be stampeded into an agreement just for a deadline," Schwab said. "We're going to try to get this done as soon as we can, rather than say if we don't get it done by the weekend it won't happen."

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That flexible view of the timeline appeared at odds with the stance of Lamy, who said that this week was "a moment of truth."

It is not just bluster: Time really is tight in the Doha trade round.

Elections are coming up soon in some of the world's major trading countries, including a presidential race in Brazil and a congressional race in the United States. President George W. Bush's fast-track trade negotiating authority is set to expire in mid-2007, making it imperative to secure a deal well before that, so that it cannot later be picked apart by U.S. legislators.

Not least, officials from the 149 member states of the World Trade Organization will need to review the complex formulas to assure themselves and their citizens that their trading partners make matching concessions. Rather than temporizing any longer, Lamy wants an accord on the ranges and formulas for reducing tariffs and subsidy cuts by Monday at the latest - making it possible to sign off on precise figures for thousands of specific products by July.

But before cloistering ministers in the library, Lamy let them breathe more easily, keeping Wednesday and Thursday free of official meetings and providing politicians "with adequate time to coordinate, consult and plan."

Formal talks in the library are set to begin Friday, when four central players - the United States, the EU, India and Brazil - are likely to face the toughest test yet of whether they can start making necessary compromises in front of ministers from about 30 other trading partners.

Lamy called on all delegations "to be on call at very short notice" and to continue talks in formal and informal groups through Saturday and Sunday - but to be prepared to stay on in Geneva if need be.